Just my thoughts but I think the two pages would look less crowded as four pages.
Have you thought of using the AlbumEasy program of Clives to design your layout?
Hi Vic. Yes, I have been playing with the page designs...as you can see these have handwritten labels and titles, and I am looking ultimately for a more professional final result. I don't want to leave too much blank space, but I may add some descriptive text if that would enhance the design, Not yet there in my final design or decision. The problem I face is that I wish to use Scott specialty paper, for consistency with the rest of the album, and I don't have the capability of printing on paper that size!
Looking at a range of solutions, with none selected yet. But from the lazy collector standpoint, a well designed Scott page would be more than welcome!
rrr..
Could you design them as Scott pages and have them printed at a local printers like Staples or some other office supply store. Would mean supplying the paper (possibly) and having the pages on a memory stick for them to plug into printer.
Edit, forgot to mention the collection is impressive.
For those interested:
http://www.album.france-timbres.net/
Unfortunately not on Scott Specialty pages, and missing some varieties.
rrr...
rrraphy,
The Steiner pages are about what you are looking for in regards to spaciousness. I just happened to have the first couple Steiner pages in front of me for Sweden. Rather than being all crammed together like in Scott, they are well spread out with about 15 stamps per page maximum and often well less than that. The Steiner pages, as I am sure you know, are designed for 8.5 x 11 paper.
I designed a number of pages using the template that Steiner provides. I used his template (blank page) for the header and border. I then set up a page in Wordperfect for the space inside the border and by using tables I was able to provide a well-centered description for the stamps as well as boxes to mount the stamps within. With just a bit of practice I could design a nice looking page for material for which Steiner did not provide spaces.
I have a Palo Albums French album. Much larger pages (10 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches). They have spaces for more stamps on each page because the pages are larger, but the stamps are still spaced apart between an eighth and a quarter of an inch in the horizontal direction and about twice that in the vertical between rows.
Since I am no longer collecting in albums (I am selling off my stamps but keeping a digital collection), I would be willing to sell you these Palo Albums if you are so interested. I have two volumes, with one for 1849-1960 and the second for 1961-1980. About a hundred pages in each. I splurged and got the leather-covered binder and dust cover for each. Let me know if you have any interest in these.
If anyone else is interested in obtaining these albums, let me know by private message and I will let you know if rrraphy is not interested.
ALTHOUGH albums act as guide to philately ... a dbase program that generates PDF reports of collections as changes occur.
save costs and buy stamps. store by year in ziplocs
Richard (okstamps)
Thanks for the offer of the Palo Album. They are wonderful, but I am not prepared to redo my French collection at this time (too many Scott specialty albums). Anyone interested please feel free to contact Richard.
I want to redo only the first 10 pages or so (for many albums..literally all European countries at a minimum), which I have manually done as shown as a sample on the pictures above for France, but I would love to have the handy work look more professional and printed on Scott specialty paper.
I just remembered : http://www.albumpages.net/
Wonder if they may be a solution.
rrr...
Steiner pages let you print out only the pages that you want.
My two centavos;
Very impressive stamps, but seem
to be overpowered by the slightly
oversized black mounts.
Re: The opening comment;
" ... Our sense of esthetics must have changed. ..."
Boy-oh-boy has it ever. A few weeks ago while packing
for the move back to Florida, I was showing a granddaughter
a copy of the October 1939 National Geographic (Two months
before my reported birth.) and comparing it with a 1918 issue,
one from the '60s and a recent issue. She was most interested
in the style and content of the advertising.
What was really interesting is the ads core similarities
contrasted with the way different products are displayed.
Postage stamps are nit the only way living history can be
displayed.
In my opinion is that designing album pages falls into one or two categories; you either design for yourself or you design for others. This is because most people have a strong sense of what they think looks good but this is often far from being the same thing as what a majority of people might think looks good.
A simple example is watching any of the ‘flipping’ or other shows about real estate. We each decorate, paint and design our houses in a way that is pleasing to ourselves. But when you go to sell your house you get a wakeup call when the realtor or designer tells you that your house needs a complete makeover so it will appeal to most buyers. Doing highly custom design ideas (for example gluing straw or tree bark on a wall) might be perfect in your design mind but may not be seen as favorable to most other people.
This is why an app like Clive’s has a following, it allows users to design what looks good to their eye. Laying out pages which look good to your own eye is easy. But when you move into designing pages that the majority of other folks will like the task becomes much more difficult. You have to make a LOT of pragmatic design decisions including many which not sit well with your own design preferences. Ultimately the truism ‘you can’t please everyone’ comes into play when you design pages for others. But staying in the ‘safe’ arena of designing for only yourself makes things a lot easier.
Don
Hi rrraphy. What I do is take the page you don't like and flip it over. Use a new sharp sharpy and put your heading @ the top of page. With the light just right,you can see through page and apply small dot at each corner of border, take a ruler and connect the dots and it basically reproduces the Scott border.mine anyway. Then with your stamps in mounts, move them around on the page dry until you find a design that works for you. Then lick and stick. You can use a ruler and make very faint lines with a pencil to stay square also for your heading, I cut my Scott pages to 8 1/2 X 11 and put pages back to back in 1 avery 3 ring sheet protector in my Scott National album.
Oh Nice stamps by the way!!
Just a comment Johnny (Coman66). I too love these Avery sheet protectors. All my Steiner pages are now housed in them, in solid 3 ring D binders. I stayed away from the 3-hole binders of Scott because it does not allow me to hold extra material (temporarily) in the seam of the pages (think extra stamps), but with the sheet protectors you can put them inside the protector. I found out that a Scott specialty page can be cropped to a 8 1/2 x 11 inch standard page US size perfectly, preserving the elegant border. So you va even convert the wide sheet layout of Scott pages into the universal standard page size.
With Steiner pages it is also such an economical approach.
But, by choice, while the rest of my collection is on Steiner pages, ALL my European collection is housed in Scott 2-hole specialty albums, and this is where I have a tough time creating (not difficult but so time consuming, and with hand written titles, it lacks the pro touch) the pages I wish to add, or to re-design myself the pages to replace the congested early Scott layout.
When, post Covid-19, I can again go to printing stores, I will try to print cropped Steiner pages on (supplied by me) Scott specialty paper, to see if it works. I wish I had a printer with a wider sheet capacity to fool around with.
(For those interested, the Avery sheet protectors (no longer available in my Costco store) can be bought at Amazon at a very reasonable price, in boxes of 200-225 pages).
Just a technical question. Any long term effect to worry about on the stamps. I know the pages and sheet protectors are acid free, but I wonder nonetheless.
rrr....
"My two centavos;
Very impressive stamps, but seem
to be overpowered by the slightly
oversized black mounts.
"
"Just a technical question. Any long term effect to worry about on the stamps. I know the pages and sheet protectors are acid free, but I wonder nonetheless."
I think I've presented this link to University Products here before. I've used their "archival Melinex polyester" sleeves for 3-ring binders to store 19th and early 20th century family photos and documents. The price is the primary objection to using these sheets. Here's the link to the page.
https://www.universityproducts.com/photo-album-pocket-pages.html
They aren't sold in bulk the way most 3-ring binder sleeves are sold. Only ten per package, but you get a discount if you buy multiple packages!
Our sense of esthetics must have changed. Notice how early pages of Scott stamp albums are jam crammed, with very little empty space. (and most often without room for stamp variations, even if listed).
Considering the high value of the stamps (often) on the early pages of most collections, wouldn't it make sense to redesign the early pages, typically pages 1, 2 3 etc.. and provide breathing room? More recent pages of Scott album certainly allow much more spacious page designs.
I have been redesigning the early pages of some of my collections, but wonder if anyone knows if Scott has reissued these pages later with a less congested and more esthetic design? Has anyone bought recently a set of reissued Scott pages with a more spacious design for the early pages. I suppose I could transfer the Steiner pages to Scott paper, but even that does not solve all the design issues.
Here are my France collection first page from Scott (now empty) and the two pages I have laid out in replacement. (Photos, not scans, just to illustrate the design issue).
I would really like to have a more professionally designed set of page for the 1800s era, if available. What have some of you done about it, if anything? This applies not only to France illustrated here, but also to most of the early pages of stamp issuing countries in the mid 1800s.
rrr...
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
Just my thoughts but I think the two pages would look less crowded as four pages.
Have you thought of using the AlbumEasy program of Clives to design your layout?
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
Hi Vic. Yes, I have been playing with the page designs...as you can see these have handwritten labels and titles, and I am looking ultimately for a more professional final result. I don't want to leave too much blank space, but I may add some descriptive text if that would enhance the design, Not yet there in my final design or decision. The problem I face is that I wish to use Scott specialty paper, for consistency with the rest of the album, and I don't have the capability of printing on paper that size!
Looking at a range of solutions, with none selected yet. But from the lazy collector standpoint, a well designed Scott page would be more than welcome!
rrr..
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
Could you design them as Scott pages and have them printed at a local printers like Staples or some other office supply store. Would mean supplying the paper (possibly) and having the pages on a memory stick for them to plug into printer.
Edit, forgot to mention the collection is impressive.
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
For those interested:
http://www.album.france-timbres.net/
Unfortunately not on Scott Specialty pages, and missing some varieties.
rrr...
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
rrraphy,
The Steiner pages are about what you are looking for in regards to spaciousness. I just happened to have the first couple Steiner pages in front of me for Sweden. Rather than being all crammed together like in Scott, they are well spread out with about 15 stamps per page maximum and often well less than that. The Steiner pages, as I am sure you know, are designed for 8.5 x 11 paper.
I designed a number of pages using the template that Steiner provides. I used his template (blank page) for the header and border. I then set up a page in Wordperfect for the space inside the border and by using tables I was able to provide a well-centered description for the stamps as well as boxes to mount the stamps within. With just a bit of practice I could design a nice looking page for material for which Steiner did not provide spaces.
I have a Palo Albums French album. Much larger pages (10 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches). They have spaces for more stamps on each page because the pages are larger, but the stamps are still spaced apart between an eighth and a quarter of an inch in the horizontal direction and about twice that in the vertical between rows.
Since I am no longer collecting in albums (I am selling off my stamps but keeping a digital collection), I would be willing to sell you these Palo Albums if you are so interested. I have two volumes, with one for 1849-1960 and the second for 1961-1980. About a hundred pages in each. I splurged and got the leather-covered binder and dust cover for each. Let me know if you have any interest in these.
If anyone else is interested in obtaining these albums, let me know by private message and I will let you know if rrraphy is not interested.
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
ALTHOUGH albums act as guide to philately ... a dbase program that generates PDF reports of collections as changes occur.
save costs and buy stamps. store by year in ziplocs
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
Richard (okstamps)
Thanks for the offer of the Palo Album. They are wonderful, but I am not prepared to redo my French collection at this time (too many Scott specialty albums). Anyone interested please feel free to contact Richard.
I want to redo only the first 10 pages or so (for many albums..literally all European countries at a minimum), which I have manually done as shown as a sample on the pictures above for France, but I would love to have the handy work look more professional and printed on Scott specialty paper.
I just remembered : http://www.albumpages.net/
Wonder if they may be a solution.
rrr...
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
Steiner pages let you print out only the pages that you want.
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
My two centavos;
Very impressive stamps, but seem
to be overpowered by the slightly
oversized black mounts.
Re: The opening comment;
" ... Our sense of esthetics must have changed. ..."
Boy-oh-boy has it ever. A few weeks ago while packing
for the move back to Florida, I was showing a granddaughter
a copy of the October 1939 National Geographic (Two months
before my reported birth.) and comparing it with a 1918 issue,
one from the '60s and a recent issue. She was most interested
in the style and content of the advertising.
What was really interesting is the ads core similarities
contrasted with the way different products are displayed.
Postage stamps are nit the only way living history can be
displayed.
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
In my opinion is that designing album pages falls into one or two categories; you either design for yourself or you design for others. This is because most people have a strong sense of what they think looks good but this is often far from being the same thing as what a majority of people might think looks good.
A simple example is watching any of the ‘flipping’ or other shows about real estate. We each decorate, paint and design our houses in a way that is pleasing to ourselves. But when you go to sell your house you get a wakeup call when the realtor or designer tells you that your house needs a complete makeover so it will appeal to most buyers. Doing highly custom design ideas (for example gluing straw or tree bark on a wall) might be perfect in your design mind but may not be seen as favorable to most other people.
This is why an app like Clive’s has a following, it allows users to design what looks good to their eye. Laying out pages which look good to your own eye is easy. But when you move into designing pages that the majority of other folks will like the task becomes much more difficult. You have to make a LOT of pragmatic design decisions including many which not sit well with your own design preferences. Ultimately the truism ‘you can’t please everyone’ comes into play when you design pages for others. But staying in the ‘safe’ arena of designing for only yourself makes things a lot easier.
Don
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
Hi rrraphy. What I do is take the page you don't like and flip it over. Use a new sharp sharpy and put your heading @ the top of page. With the light just right,you can see through page and apply small dot at each corner of border, take a ruler and connect the dots and it basically reproduces the Scott border.mine anyway. Then with your stamps in mounts, move them around on the page dry until you find a design that works for you. Then lick and stick. You can use a ruler and make very faint lines with a pencil to stay square also for your heading, I cut my Scott pages to 8 1/2 X 11 and put pages back to back in 1 avery 3 ring sheet protector in my Scott National album.
Oh Nice stamps by the way!!
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
Just a comment Johnny (Coman66). I too love these Avery sheet protectors. All my Steiner pages are now housed in them, in solid 3 ring D binders. I stayed away from the 3-hole binders of Scott because it does not allow me to hold extra material (temporarily) in the seam of the pages (think extra stamps), but with the sheet protectors you can put them inside the protector. I found out that a Scott specialty page can be cropped to a 8 1/2 x 11 inch standard page US size perfectly, preserving the elegant border. So you va even convert the wide sheet layout of Scott pages into the universal standard page size.
With Steiner pages it is also such an economical approach.
But, by choice, while the rest of my collection is on Steiner pages, ALL my European collection is housed in Scott 2-hole specialty albums, and this is where I have a tough time creating (not difficult but so time consuming, and with hand written titles, it lacks the pro touch) the pages I wish to add, or to re-design myself the pages to replace the congested early Scott layout.
When, post Covid-19, I can again go to printing stores, I will try to print cropped Steiner pages on (supplied by me) Scott specialty paper, to see if it works. I wish I had a printer with a wider sheet capacity to fool around with.
(For those interested, the Avery sheet protectors (no longer available in my Costco store) can be bought at Amazon at a very reasonable price, in boxes of 200-225 pages).
Just a technical question. Any long term effect to worry about on the stamps. I know the pages and sheet protectors are acid free, but I wonder nonetheless.
rrr....
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
"My two centavos;
Very impressive stamps, but seem
to be overpowered by the slightly
oversized black mounts.
"
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
"Just a technical question. Any long term effect to worry about on the stamps. I know the pages and sheet protectors are acid free, but I wonder nonetheless."
re: Redesigning the layout of Early Scott Specialty pages
I think I've presented this link to University Products here before. I've used their "archival Melinex polyester" sleeves for 3-ring binders to store 19th and early 20th century family photos and documents. The price is the primary objection to using these sheets. Here's the link to the page.
https://www.universityproducts.com/photo-album-pocket-pages.html
They aren't sold in bulk the way most 3-ring binder sleeves are sold. Only ten per package, but you get a discount if you buy multiple packages!